The Sunni Muslims in Syria apparently didn’t get the memo from the country’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, that was meant to assure the country’s minorities — the Alawites, the Kurds, the Christians, and the Druze — that they need not worry, for they will receive equal treatment with the majority Sunni Arabs. The Sunnis who killed more than a thousand Alawites in Latakia in mid-March certainly didn’t pay any attention to al-Sharaa’s assurances. Nor did those Sunnis who attacked the Druze in their village of Jaranama, at the end of April, or those who then attacked another Druze village, Sahnaya, where they murdered the mayor, Hussam Warwar, and his son.
Now the Druze have called on the outside world for help. Israel is the country most likely to respond. The Jewish state has already carried out a drone strike on Sunnis in Jaranama, but more force is needed to make the Sunnis in Syria to stop their pogrom of the Druze. The Druze certainly deserve Israel’s help in rescuing their fellows in Syria. The Druze serve in the IDF; and have proven to be excellent soldiers. Almost five hundred Druze have died defending the country in Israel’s wars and anti-terror campaigns.
More on the latest attack on the Druze in Syria, and the call by both Israeli Jews and by Israeli Druze for the IDF to intervene, can be found here: “Syrian Druze community pleas for int’l assistance as sectarian violence continues,” by Shir Perets, Jerusalem Post, May 1, 2025:
Druze citizens living in Syria on Thursday sent a plea to the international community calling for help against recent attacks on the Druze community in Syria.
The plea came shortly after the reported murder of Hussam Warwar, the mayor of the Druze community of Sahnaya, and his son.
“Our young men are being arrested and tortured in ways that defy description. The abuse they’re enduring is brutal… beyond what any conscience can accept. The images we receive are too painful to share not out of fear, but out of respect for their dignity, which is being violated every day behind closed doors. But we can no longer remain silent,” a statement published on X/Twitter by user MiraMedusa, read.
The statement called for the Red Cross, the United Nations, journalists, activists, and members of the global Druze community to speak out and “act immediately to save those who remain and put an end to these ongoing atrocities.”
Hakmat Al-Hajeri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community, issued a statement saying the community had lost trust in the new leadership.
“We no longer trust the body that calls itself a government. We do not trust the presence of its people among us because they are nothing but machines of murder and kidnapping, distorting the facts, with a sectarian mindset that deems other sects as infidels,” he said.
The MiraMedusa account posted what they claimed was a “hostage-like video” of Warwar welcoming members of the new Syrian government, reassuring residents, and welcoming the forces into the area….
You can see the mayor, reassuring his people that they had nothing to worry about, in this video:
Members of the so-called “General Security” under the jihadist Syrian regime publicly executed the mayor of Sahnaya and his son in cold blood after deceiving him.
In the attached, hostage-like video, media affiliated with the so-called “New Syrian Government” falsely portrayed… pic.twitter.com/X7DbVXG7Fb
— Mira ⛥ (@MiraMedusa) May 1, 2025
I hope that the Israelis, keenly aware of the sacrifices the Druze in Israel have made for the state, will use drones and planes to strike the Sunnis now in Druze villages in Syria, in order to push them away. if necessary, the IDF should send in ground troops to those Druze villages located just beyond the Golan Heights. Weapons should be brought in and distributed to the Druze. Those Druze in Syria who live outside the perimeter of security established by the IDF should move to those Druze villages closer to Israel, where the IDF soldiers will protect them.
But what should the Druze in Syria do in the long run?
Some Israelis have suggested that the Druze living in a southern suburb of Damascus should simply move 40 miles closer to the Israeli border — the new border, which was established by the Israelis after Assad fell — where it would be easier for the IDF to defend them. It could become an autonomous region for the Druze, akin to the Jabal Druze that existed during the French Mandate between 1921 and 1934.
Another possibility is for the Druze to choose not to live in an autonomous statelet next to Israel, but to request that their villages be formally annexed to Israel. What could Syria do to prevent it? Fight the Druze and the IDF? Of course not. Israel’s Druze would have their commitment to the state reaffirmed and rewarded; the new Druze citizens would be, like the Druze in Israel, loyal and effective fighters for the state. And the spectacle of Druze freely choosing to become part of Israel will certainly be of great interest to the Alawites, the Christians, and especially the Kurds in Syria.
Stive says
Israel morally and in common survival mode must defend the druze.
Many will not like it, but that man in the white house doesn’t give a flying ______, about kurds and even less about druze.
Israel must act alone and pray that man does not interfere.
Becca R says
There is only one answer here: Annex the Druze settlements to Israel 0r resettle them in Isrseli villages where they have kin. They are suffering and Israel is the only likely savior for this minority. Israel must do something that gives the Druze as well as all Israelis long term security. That last statement touches on another issue, the stability of the ME. Iran must be denuclearized and Turkey must be dealt with by both US, since they are a NATO member, and Iarael. Once Iran is eviscerated , as they should be, Turkey, which is a complex issue particularly in its support of the Jihadist in Western garb, must be dealt with. The question remains as to how.
Cynthia says
Israel wants to protect the Druze but is over extended already with Gaza, Hezbollah, Houtis and Iran. Reservists are being recalled many times and more than 600 soldiers have been killed. For a tiny country, this is a huge number.
Even so, Israel will try to help the Druze. The international community will try to blame Israel for their intervention against jihadists.
OLD GUY says
Yes Islam doing what islam does. Violence and killing of others is part of their so called religious values. And the world looks on as the killing of men women and children take place. It’s all about the power leaders of our world deciding on who gets protected and who is not worth it.